Welding

[Ben Stratford]

Fantastic advice guys and a very generous offer Richard. Will do lots of research and see if there are any courses locally at a reasonable cost.
Welding outside in the wind is s major worry so will see if i can rustle up some garage space when im ready to have a go - after lots of practise.
A quality guaranteed second hand machine will still be expensive but paying someone else will quickly mount up too, and why should they have all the fun

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

I have the MIG and a small Clarke stick buzz box. I'd like a better one, but the little MMA comes in really handy at times. It's very satisfying welding with stick. I use the MIG on a lot of black bar, strip and round section and it's good to show people how little penetration you get if you don't clean the mill-scale off. Looks great but one tap with a hammer and it fails. The stick just cuts through all that. I'd love a go on something like a 6mm rod and 400 amps!

We've a 350 map stick at ours Chris, swapped it for a bag of spuds. The down side was I had to upgrade the electrics to accommodate 42 amp plugs so it wouldn't trip the breakers in the circuit board. I will say one thing though, it's a delight to weld with and the results flatter even my efforts.